{"id":7036,"date":"2026-06-28T16:41:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T10:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/?p=7036"},"modified":"2026-06-28T16:45:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:00:35","slug":"knockout-drama-begins-messi-shines-england-advance-iran-eliminated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/?p=7036","title":{"rendered":"Knockout Drama Begins: Messi Shines, England Advance, Iran Eliminated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">The FIFA World Cup 2026 has entered the Round of 32, with the 48-team tournament moving into the knockout stage. The group phase produced major surprises, late drama and historic moments. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\u2b50 Messi leads Argentina charge<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Defending champions Argentina finished their group campaign perfectly, with Lionel Messi scoring again in a 3\u20131 win over Jordan. Argentina now move into the knockout rounds as one of the favorites. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\ud83c\udff4 England enter knockout stage<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">England topped their group and advanced after a strong campaign. Harry Kane continued his record-breaking World Cup run, while Jude Bellingham played a key role in their success. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde9 Historic moment for DR Congo<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">DR Congo created history by reaching the knockout stage after a comeback victory over Uzbekistan. They now face England in a high-profile Round of 32 clash. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\ud83d\udc94 Iran heartbreak<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Iran were eliminated despite remaining unbeaten in their group. A dramatic late Austria\u2013Algeria draw changed the qualification picture and ended Iran\u2019s hopes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\ud83d\udd25 Big knockout matches ahead<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddf7 Brazil vs Japan<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea Germany vs Paraguay<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddf1 Netherlands vs Morocco<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 France vs Sweden<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\ud83c\udff4 England vs DR Congo<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddea Belgium vs Senegal\u00a0<\/span><!--\/data\/user\/0\/com.samsung.android.app.notes\/files\/clipdata\/clipdata_bodytext_260628_065500_152.sdocx--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FIFA World Cup 2026 has entered the Round of 32, with the 48-team tournament moving into the knockout stage. The group phase produced major surprises, late drama and historic moments. \u2b50 Messi leads Argentina charge Defending champions Argentina finished their group campaign perfectly, with Lionel Messi scoring again in a 3\u20131 win over Jordan. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Gs0oFLN9UhCW_97TbuydcxuHr_1440x960.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7038,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7036\/revisions\/7038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}